Who can stop Lionel Messi? Greece can according to assistant manager Mr. Ioannis Topalidis, and on a recent radio interview said between other things that “There are ways to stop Messi, but this is not the right time to reveal how”. Otto Rehhagel’s right hand in the Greek national football team spoke very highly of the Argentinian superstar, while being very optimistic for the 2010 World Cup finals.
“Lionel Messi is an amazing player no doubt, we didn’t need to see the match yesterday against Arsenal to realise that. Argentina is an amazing team also, so we are mostly focusing on our games with South Korea and Nigeria, but we have watched many videos of Messi and Argentina and the way he was confronted from the South American teams. And he didn’t have the same performance at all. I am a big fan of Diego Maradona so I will not say that Messi is his successor, but he is definitely right up there. Let’s just say he is a better character, and he can do everything on the field.”
Coach Topalidis also commented on manager Otto Rehhagel and his future with Greece. “We have to wait for the World Cup in South Africa to be over, there is no need to discuss this now. We want to have a good run this time and we start the group stage against two good teams that we can look straight in the eye.” The Greek national team is starting preparations for the World Cup competition on May 17, and has some friendly games planned later on.
